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| | | Ding Dong! Avon Calling! by Katina Manko review – a fresh take on the cosmetics industry | | by Linda Scott Aug 12, 2021 | | An astute analysis of how a corporation transformed the economic landscape for women around the world At first glance, some readers may expect Ding Dong! Avon Calling! to be a frothy history of cosmetics. Others might assume that the book will belong on the long list of accusatory treatises about capitalism and the power of beauty advertising to enslave women. Fortunately, Katina Manko’s thoroughly researched and deftly written book on Avon products presents a fresh take on the beauty and fashion industry, one that breaks with and demystifies the cliches of the past. Manko focuses her history on the sales agents who rang the doorbells. Throughout, she takes seriously the idea that at least some “Avon ladies” were striving to do something that, until very recently, was rare in American life: to start and grow a woman-owned business. Rather than dismiss them as foolish housewives or corporate dupes, she treats these agents’ entrepreneurial ambitions with respect, dispassionately analysing their achievements and failures. Continue reading... | | | | | | | Russell Tovey: 'Queer people in my generation have section 28 in our blood' | | by David Shariatmadari Aug 12, 2021 | | As he hits the stage in Constellations, Tovey talks babies, self-loathing and why he finally understands The History Boys
Russell Tovey is trying to lick his elbow. It’s a ritual every performer has to go through in the opening scene of Nick Payne’s play Constellations – the response to a flirtily issued challenge from a stranger – but it seems particularly suited to someone whose physical presence combines goofiness and sex appeal in equal measure. The resulting ripple of laughter in a packed house feels mildly alarming after months of social distancing, but for Tovey it’s a reassuring sign of a return to normal. “It hasn’t felt as alien as I thought it was gonna be,” he says, adding that gaps between seats could feel “like you’re playing to a show that hasn’t sold that well”. Judging by the queues outside, there’s little danger of that. We meet the next day at the bottom of a lightwell in the middle of a rehearsal studio in Covent Garden. It’s technically outside, which is better for Covid, the PR assures us – a reminder that normal is, in fact, some way away. Tovey is dressed in grey chinos and a darker sweater that chime with his now more-salt-than-pepper hair. The erstwhile History Boy is turning 40 in November (he played sixth-former Rudge in the Alan Bennett hit at the age of 23), though he still somehow manages to look younger than his years. The run-up to this milestone obviously hasn’t panned out as expected. In 2020 he was supposed to be on Broadway, performing in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? alongside Rupert Everett, and, as he told one interviewer, “putting the feelers out” on how to have a baby. Continue reading... | | | | | |
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